Rhesus macaques River (left) and Batman. Mjs Monkeys 6 Hoffman Jpg Monkeys
A Mississippi mother shot and killed an escaped research monkey early Sunday morning after spotting the animal near her home and fearing it could threaten her five children. Jessica Bond Ferguson, 35, said she was woken by her teenage son around dawn. “He said he thought he saw a monkey in the yard,” she told the Associated Press. She stepped outside with her phone and a firearm and spotted the animal about 60 feet away. “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” she said. “I shot at it and it just stood there, and I shot again, and he backed up and that’s when he fell.”
A Concerned Citizen
Corpus Christi police officer Andrew Flores speaks with officer Michael Guerrero, back, after responding to a 911 call on March 21, 2025, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Ferguson said she had already called the police before going outside and was told to keep an eye on the animal. But she worried that waiting could put other families at risk. “If it attacked somebody’s kid and I could have stopped it, that would be a lot on me,” she said. “It’s kind of scary and dangerous that they are running around, and people have kids playing in their yards.” The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office confirmed a homeowner had shot one of the monkeys and said the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks had collected the animal’s body. Officials have not indicated whether any other monkeys remain missing.
The Monkeys Were Non-Infectious
A baby rhesus macaque peeks from behind a tree trunk while feeding on some bark along the Silver River. Monkey 002
The rhesus monkeys had been en route to a biomedical research facility when their transport truck crashed along Interstate 59 near Heidelberg, about 100 miles southeast of Jackson. Tulane University said the monkeys did not belong to its National Primate Research Center, which has previously supplied animals for medical research, and that the animals were not infectious. The Mississippi Highway Patrol is investigating the cause of the crash.
Locals Said The Monkeys Were “Aggressive”
In this April 9, 2015 photo, rhesus monkeys climb in their enclosure at Primate Products in Hendry County, Fla. Primate Products is one of three, with a fourth in the works, of monkey breeding farms in the area, and the possibility that the small, rural county will become the country’s biggest supplier of research primates has some neighbors and many animal rights activists howling.
Initial reports from the truck’s occupants suggested the monkeys might carry diseases, but Tulane later said the animals had recently undergone health screenings and were pathogen-free. Still, local officials described them as “aggressive” and urged residents to report sightings rather than attempt to capture or approach them.
This Isn’t The First Monkey Escape In Recent Memory
Emergency personnel responds to an overturned tanker truck on an entrance ramp from NJ-17 southbound to NJ-3 eastbound in Rutherford on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025.
Rhesus monkeys are small—typically around 16 pounds—but they can be territorial and quick to attack if frightened. They are also one of the most studied species in medical research, used for decades in experiments related to vaccines, neuroscience, and behavior. Video taken after the crash showed wooden crates marked “live animals” smashed in the grass beside the highway as the monkeys darted into nearby woods. The incident is similar to another escape last year in South Carolina, when more than 40 rhesus macaques broke free from a breeding compound after an employee failed to lock an enclosure. Most were later recaptured.
